The Moment Karl Rove Imploded on Fox

WASHINGTON – It was a historic collapse of credibility. A moment in time when the American people had spoken loudly. However, on Fox News Channel, Karl Rove went deaf. Dumb. Blind. He took along with him Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly, who evidently didn’t have the power to push him off camera in favor of math and facts and the voters speaking loudly. It was the culmination of coverage on the cable network that had been foreshadowed by weeks of hyper partisan coverage of Benghazi, worse than their usual fair, when the rest of the country was focused on the economy.

The remarkable spectacle on Fox News Channel culminated in an epic explosion once Ohio was called for President Obama and he was reelected the 44th president of the United States.

It began when Chris Wallace announced that the Romney campaign was disputing the numbers coming out of Ohio. Moments later Karl Rove starts spinning out the names of counties trying to prove the race had not been won.

In the middle of all this Charles Krauthammer begins a monologue, hissing invectives at Obama, illustrating why Mitt Romney and Republicans deserved to be taken out.

It happened in a way that no one on Fox News Channel saw coming, because the possibility was too horrible for them to consider.

For days, Fox has been spinning that Mitt Romney was surging. Then after it was clear they couldn’t prove it they started shifting the story and blaming Romney’s faltering on nor’easter Sandy, which continued earlier in the night with Bill O’Reilly, their #1 host.

From Dick Morris pontificating about a “landslide” to Sean Hannity’s hit squad, the hatred for the President has dripped day after day, crafting a narrative that a Romney win was in hand. No evidence, just malarkey.

Then tonight hit and Karl Rove couldn’t believe it.

At one point Megyn Kelly got up to go back stage to talk to the statisticians making sure the count was right out of Ohio. They looked genuinely surprised that she was confronting them, though very nicely. The only reason she went back there was because Karl Rove was blowing a gasket on air.

Kelly came back to the set, while Bret Baier looked over his shoulder for Rove, after calling him back on stage. Then suddenly after he came on stage, Michael Barone was summoned as well.

Barone started talking, everyone clearly trying to appease Karl Rove, who was going through the political version of water torture on air. The entire Fox News audience saw the naked cravenness of their favorite channel not being able to accept that Team Obama had beaten the Romney team, with Karl Rove bereft of legitimacy after being exposed for trying to spin that the election was falsely called, thus making Obama illegitimate.

Barone told Rove it was over.

The entire spectacle was a fitting crescendo and finale to what has been building for weeks, as Fox analysts made up out of whole cloth that Mitt Romney would not only win, but do so handily, while there was no evidence to prove their assertions.

Steve Hayes later said, “The polling was more accurate than it wasn’t.”

This is not what happened.

The coverage on Fox was pure fiction. They lied. They said the polls were “skewed.” That up was down. They were made fools by saying otherwise, with conservatives also trying to humiliate Nate Silver in the process.

What’s even worse is that they sucked in their audience who lapped up this wholly ridiculous narrative they were spinning, because the earnest hatred through which it was delivered missed the truth about this country.

Mitt Romney’s campaign and Fox News Channel, along with right wing radio, not only ignored minorities, but told the white audience that laps up the hatred they spew day in and day out towards Barack Obama, that the Millenials, Hispanics and African Americans don’t exist and that women are going to put up with our bodies being made into “social issues” that can be used like poker chips. Democrats do that with women too, but at least it usually ends up to our benefit.

If Fox News was an employee they’d be fired and unable to get hired in the business again.

Nate Silver was correct and beat all the poll hacks pushing false narratives, but are respected simply because they’re paid by the establishment elite. He’ll be serving crow on the mezzanine deck the rest of the month.

As for Karl Rove, I’ve been waiting 12 frickin’ years for this malevolent egomaniac to get his due, but I never dreamed I’d get to watch his unmaking on Fox News in prime election time.

Thank you President Obama for delivering Karl Rove’s head on a plate.

Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Tammy Baldwin, Claire McCaskill… and on and on… winning was the main course, but The Architect trussed on a platter was a spectacular dessert.

Taylor Marsh, a veteran political analyst and former Huffington Post contributor, is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media magazine www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women, foreign policy, and the politics of sex.

Taylor – The Roves of this country are not going to give up their cherished narratives. I spent the morning reviewing Powerline, NRO, Redstate etc wondering how they were going to spin this defeat. Essentially they blamed the biased media, hurricane Sandy, the takers of the country, women wanted free contraceptives and free abortions. In short, they blamed the American public as too dumb to vote the right way. It was DENIAL on an unbelievable level.

If readers have the stomach, they should read these blogs and their crazy comments to understand the level of denial.

slamfu

I look forward to watching this when I’m not at work.

ShannonLeee

That was a great read, thanks Taylor.

DORIAN DE WIND, Military Affairs Columnist

Wow Taylor. I was there watching the turd explode, but the way you recount it makes it doubly enjoyable,

As you say, I also never “dreamed I’d get to watch his unmaking on Fox News in prime election time.”

What a treat!

Thank you

http://www.kudzufiles.com Harry

It really couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. But I won’t believe for a minute that this will make Rove go away. He’s still Svengali to too many right-wing believers.

DORIAN DE WIND, Military Affairs Columnist

Just watched the video again. What caught my attention and my ear was Megyn Kelly saying, as she trotted to the statisticians’ room, “we’ll do a little interrogating… see if they stand by their call”

Wow, perhaps going to apply some of Cheney/Bush “enhanced interrogation techniques”? Regardless, the analysts did not change their minds. See, torture doesn’t work.

SteveK

Loved the last two seconds of the video Rove was starting to sound like Porky Pig, “but they ah, but they ah, but they ah…”

… That’s All Folks.

http://taylormarsh.com TAYLOR MARSH, Guest Voice Columnist

Appreciate it, ShannonLeee, Dorian. It was something to watch.

jdledell November 7, 2012 | 12:10 pm

But that’s the beauty of last night and the demographic take down. If they continue in denial the people who want to move beyond their right wing hate & fear message will continue to win. Sure, they’ll eek out putting unserious people in office here and there. However, the country turned the page.

All that money against Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, and many others, including Obama, couldn’t do it.

So let them stay in denial.

America has moved on.

Carl

I watched it too. Great stuff. Rove is clearly exposed as not the brain so many believed. Rove flipped his wig and Krautenhammer, the psychologist, couldn’t save him from making a fool of himself, because IMO, Krautenhammer is a very slow thinking dim-bulb himself.

ShannonLeee

Rove also failed to help Reps take a seat in the senate. Double fail.

http://themoderatevoice.com T-STEEL, Site Administrator

If Republicans had a fully fleshed out economic plan with the candidate to deliver it, they would have won. But the scare tactics and outright falsehoods pushed by a sizable amount on the Right just didn’t and can’t hold. Even now, we have some conservatives saying that America has died. Even Michelle Malkin not even repeating that. She knows it’s silly and is taking the soldier on approach.

sheknows

Rove speaks for the many Republicans who are in a state of disbelief. He was fun to watch because he made such a fool of himself, but at the same time it is frightening. This morning the right is STILL claiming foul and making excuses. This stage of denial will be followed by one of anger. They are not going to take this loss graciously and we will see a repeat of obstructionism and vitriol down the road. Not immediately of course, but eventually. You cannot change the mind-set of these “new” Republicans…not even Boehner.

Carl

I think people are just waking up to the “socialism” fear mongering from the right. Commies coming over the hill are bringing big bucks to fill our banks not Kalashnikovs to steal our pick-up trucks and big breasted daughters.

The Republican fear mongering is dead. We can have social justice and progress without joining the collective. A fine educated Black American has shown the way. It’s a great message for people to build upon.

Carl

Hillary is leaving! I knew it! (CNN)

Goodby old girl. Thanks for your noble effort.

slamfu

Poor Karl, its embarassing when someone is caught believing their own BS.

ordinarysparrow

Thanks Taylor, good read….

I just want to pause and offer thanks for Karl, he lead the best re-distribution of wealth that we have seen in a long long time….what a guy!

zephyr

As for Karl Rove, I’ve been waiting 12 frickin’ years for this malevolent egomaniac to get his due, but I never dreamed I’d get to watch his unmaking on Fox News in prime election time.

Thank you President Obama for delivering Karl Rove’s head on a plate.

Yes indeed. There are so many reasons why an Obama win was necessary; this undoing of Karl Rove (who I view as a bug of a person) is just a little frosting on the cake. Seeing Charles Krauthammer tormented by an impending Obama victory is also pleasant.

Hunter-Seeker

Thank you, Taylor, for your article. One of my favorite quotes is so appropriate at this point:

“The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don’t alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views.” The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

ordinarysparrow

Taylor i have a question, somewhat related in that it is media coverage related…

Was Diane Sawyer partaking of the 47 percent drink that Dorian was serving out?

So, if Rove would have requested a larger sample size before would that have been different? People who watch Fox subscribe to a narrative, as do people who watch MSNBC. I think Rove’s disbelief was more heavy-handedness, and really not that unusual. I feel like his comment about having “his math” was significantly worse than this, because it seems like he’s in denial here/wanting a larger sample size. I’m pretty sure Olberman behaved similarly 8 years ago…

bluebelle

Rove was upset because he’ll have to explain the loss to the mega-donors of his Super-Pac American Crossroads. Apparently, the Romney campaign was totally in the dark about their chances, and really expected to win. This should hurt Rove’s credibility, but he also has been blamed for the GOP’s mid-term losses in ’06 and survived that one pretty well.

What I find amazing is that so many conservative pundits and prognosticators went out on a limb to predict a Romney win, despite all the solid evidence to the contrary.

Noting that at the moment Fox called Ohio for Obama, Rove had “his phone glued to his ear” and on the other end was a senior Romney campaign official who insisted that the network had blown the call, the Times asks, “What role was Karl Rove playing when he heatedly contradicted Fox News?”

Was he acting as the man who oversaw the most expensive advertising assault on a sitting president in history, unable to face his own wounded pride? The fund-raiser who had persuaded wealthy conservatives to give hundreds of millions of dollars and now had a lot of explaining to do? Or the former political strategist for George W. Bush, who saw firsthand how a botched network call could alter the course of a presidential contest?

The Times notes:

Mr. Rove’s deep connections to Republican politics are part of the reason that Fox News put him on the air on Tuesday night to rebut what its own team of analysts had concluded.

Apparently, his friends on “Fox & Friends,” did not ask Rove about it when he appeared the next morning on their show…

Carl

I really like this post. Hope that it moves forward for future updates. I keep seeing Karl Rove doing backflips down the street in a, “koo-koo for coco-puffs commercial”.